Michel Pereira vs Michal Oleksiejczuk added to UFC 299
UFC 299 is shaping up to be an incredible night of fights, an event to be headlined by a bantamweight title bout between champion Sean O’Malley (17-1) and the only man to ever defeat him, no. 6 ranked Marlon Vera (22-8-1).
Co-headlining the event is also a very intriguing affair, this one coming at 155 lbs between no. 3 ranked former interim champion Dustin Poirier (29-8) and no. 12 ranked Benoit Saint-Denis (13-1).
A newly signed bout also going down at this event comes in the middleweight division between dangerous strikers Michel Pereira (29-11) and Michal Oleksiejczuk (19-6).
Pereira spent his early UFC career down at 170 lbs, emphatically KO’ing fellow striker Danny Roberts in 107 seconds of his promotional debut with a flying knee. This was followed up by a lackluster unanimous decision defeat to natural featherweight Tristan Connelly, a fight he wasted far too much energy in that showed no benefit to him.
Following this defeat Pereira would face Diego Sanchez, fighting a much more technical, reserved pace throughout, up until he was DQ’d midway through round three for landing an illegal knee onto the original Ultimate Fighter.
That fight should have gone to a technical decision, no question, and Pereira would’ve handily won on the cards. Nonetheless, he was now coming off back-to-back defeats following one of the more impressive UFC debuts in recent memory.
Pereira would tighten things up even more after this second setback, winning his next five-straight over the likes of Zelim Imadaev (rear naked choke), Khaos Williams (UD), Niko Price (UD), Andre Fialho (UD), and Santiago Ponzinibbio (SD). He was then slated to face former two-time title challenger Stephen Thompson, a bout he missed weight for, his second promotional weight miss, and the match up was cancelled, forcing him to move up to 185 lbs.
Pereira’s middleweight debut was an impressive one, TKO’ing Andre Petroski in just 66 seconds this past October, who was 5-0 inside the UFC himself.
Then we have Michal Oleksiejczuk, a hard-hitting, incredibly fast knockout artist hailing from Poland.
Oleksiejczuk won his first three octagon bouts upon arriving to the promotion in 2017, defeating the likes of current no. 8 ranked light-heavyweight contender Khalil Rountree (UD), Gian Villante (TKO), and Gadzhimurad Antigulov (KO), the Rountree win being overturned as a result of a failed drug test.
This was followed up by back-to-back defeats to Ovince Saint Preux (Von Flue choke) and Jimmy Crute (kimura), before defeating Modestas Bukauskas (SD) and then undefeated Shamil Gamzatov (TKO). Oleksiejczuk then suffered a setback to former kickboxer Dustin Jacoby (UD), marking his promotional record at 4-3 (1 NC) after eight fights.
All of these fights took place at 205 lbs, and following defeat to Jacoby, Oleksiejczuk knew it was time for a change, a drop down to 185 lbs as he was never a big light-heavyweight.
Since then, he’s gone 3-1, defeating Sam Alvey (TKO) and Cody Brundage (KO), losing to Brazilian phenom Caio Borralho (rear naked choke), and defeating former kickboxer Chidi Njokuani (TKO) in his most recent appearance this past August.
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